The tenor guitar, also called the four-string guitar, is a smaller instrument with four strings. It is similar to the steel-string acoustic guitar or electric guitar. This instrument was first created in its acoustic form by Gibson and C.F. Martin so that people who play the four-string tenor banjo could also play guitar.

Construction

Tenor guitars are four-stringed instruments that usually look like regular guitars. They can be acoustic, electric, or have both types of sound production. These guitars can have different body types, such as flat-top, arch-top, wood, metal, resonator, or solid bodies. The length of the strings on tenor guitars is typically between 21 and 23 inches (53 and 58 centimeters), which is similar to the string length found on tenor banjos and octave mandolins.

History and development

The earliest history of the tenor guitar is not certain, but it is unlikely that a true four-stringed guitar-shaped tenor guitar was made before the late 1920s. In 1924, Gibson created the tenor lute TL-4, which had a pear-shaped body, four strings, and a tenor banjo neck. Other makers, such as Lyon and Healy and banjo makers like Bacon, may have made similar instruments around the same time. During this period, banjo makers like Paramount also built transitional wood-bodied instruments with four strings and tenor banjo necks, called tenor harps. Starting in 1927, the first true wood-bodied acoustic tenor guitars were made by Gibson and Martin as production instruments.

Many major guitar makers, including Epiphone, Kay, Gretsch, Guild, and National Reso-Phonic, have made tenor and plectrum guitars at different times. In the 1950s and 1960s, budget tenor guitars from companies like Harmony, Regal, and Stella were produced in large numbers. National, created by the Dopyera Brothers, made many resonator tenor and plectrum guitars between the 1920s and 1940s. Dobro, another company linked to the Dopyera Brothers, also made resonator tenor guitar models.

In 1934, Gibson introduced the TG-50, an acoustic archtop tenor guitar based on its six-string L-50 model. Production of the TG-50 continued until 1958. In 1936, Gibson made the first commercially successful electric Spanish-style guitar, the ES-150. In early 1937, Gibson also began making two versions of the ES-150: a tenor guitar (called the EST-150, later renamed the ETG-150 in 1940) and a plectrum version (the EPG-150). The ETG-150 was produced continuously until 1972.

In the mid-1950s, electric solid-body tenor guitars were made by companies like Gibson, Gretsch, Guild, and Epiphone. These were mostly custom-made instruments, but in 1955, Gretsch produced the Gretsch 6127 DuoJet, an electric solid-body tenor guitar. Interest in tenor guitars grew again in the early 21st century, leading to new solid-body electric models. Companies like Fender began making a tenor version of their Telecaster model.

Tuning

Tenor guitars are usually tuned in fifths, which means each string is spaced a musical interval apart. The tuning is C3, G3, D4, A4, the same as the tenor banjo, mandola, or viola. Another common tuning is one octave lower than standard violin tuning, which is G2, D3, A3, E4. This is often used by the tenor banjo in Irish folk music or the octave mandolin. There is also "Chicago tuning," which is D3, G3, B3, E4. This tuning matches the top four strings of a standard guitar or the baritone ukulele, a smaller instrument that usually has nylon strings.

Plectrum guitar

The "plectrum guitar" is a four-stringed instrument with a string length of 26 to 27 inches (66 to 69 cm). It is usually tuned in a way similar to the plectrum banjo, with tunings such as C3–G3–B3–D4 or D3–G3–B3–D4. It is also often tuned like a mandocello, C2–G2–D3–A3, which is one octave lower than the tenor guitar, much like how a viola relates to a cello. Plectrum guitars are less commonly made than tenor guitars and are harder to find. A well-known plectrum guitarist from the Jazz Age was Eddie Condon, who began playing banjo in the 1920s and later switched to a Gibson L7 plectrum guitar in the 1930s.

Use and performers

Tenor guitars became widely used in the late 1920s and early 1930s as tenor banjos were gradually replaced by six-string guitars in jazz bands and dance orchestras. Tenor banjo players could use tenor guitars to create a guitar sound without learning to play six-string guitars. Two brothers named Mike McKendrick, known as "Big" Mike and "Little" Mike, played both tenor banjo and tenor guitar in jazz bands during the 1920s. "Big" Mike McKendrick managed and played with Louis Armstrong’s bands, while "Little" Mike McKendrick performed with various groups, including Tony Parenti’s.

The Delmore Brothers were a highly influential country music duo from the early 1930s to the late 1940s who used the tenor guitar. They were among the first sibling groups to sing harmonized country music, setting a model for later acts like the Louvin Brothers and The Everly Brothers. The younger Delmore brother, Rabon, played the tenor guitar to support his older brother, Alton’s, six-string guitar. Rabon preferred the Martin 0-18T tenor guitar. Later, the Louvin Brothers recorded a tribute album featuring Rabon’s Martin 0-18T, played by mandolinist Ira Louvin but tuned to match four treble guitar strings. Another 1930s group, the Hoosier Hotshots, is credited with creating midwestern rural jazz. Their leader, Ken Trietsch, played the tenor guitar and also played the tuba.

In the early 1930s, Selmer Guitars in Paris produced four-string guitars based on designs by Italian luthier Mario Maccaferri. These were marketed to banjo players as a second instrument. The main models included a standard tenor guitar with a smaller body and 23-inch scale length for CGDA tuning, and the Eddie Freeman Special, which had a larger body and 25.5-inch scale length. The Eddie Freeman Special used a special tuning for the A string, designed by English tenor banjoist Eddie Freeman to create a sound closer to six-string guitars for rhythm playing. Selmer promoted the guitar in publications like Melody Maker, and Eddie Freeman composed a song called "In All Sincerity" for it. However, the guitar was not successful in the 1930s, and many were later converted into six-string models. Original Eddie Freeman Special guitars are now rare and valuable.

As six-string guitars became more popular in bands during the 1930s and 1940s, tenor guitars were used less often. However, many tenor guitar models were still produced during this time and remain common today.

Tenor guitars gained popularity again in the 1950s and 1960s during the Dixieland jazz revival and the folk music movement. At this time, companies like Epiphone, Gibson, Guild, and Gretsch made tenor guitars as archtop acoustics, electrics, and flat-top models. Martin produced a flattop acoustic tenor guitar, the Martin 0-18T, which was played by Nick Reynolds of The Kingston Trio in the late 1950s. During this period, electric tenor guitars were sometimes called "lead guitars," though the reason for this term is unclear.

A notable player of electric tenor guitars in bebop and rhythm and blues styles from the 1940s to the 1970s was jazz guitarist Tiny Grimes. He performed with groups like Cats and the Fiddle, Charlie Parker, and Art Tatum. Grimes used DGBE "Chicago" tuning on his tenor guitars instead of the traditional CGDA tuning.

Since 2001, interest in tenor guitars has grown, with more manufacturers like Eastwood Guitars, Blueridge, Gold Tone, Artist Guitars, Canora, Thomann, Harley Benton, and Ibanez offering tenor guitar models. Specialist luthiers now also build custom tenor guitars or modify existing instruments for this use.

Wes Borland, the guitarist for the nu metal band Limp Bizkit, plays a low-tuned (F1–F2–B2–E3) four-string guitar on songs like "Nookie," "The One," "Full Nelson," and "Stalemate" using a 4-string "Cremona" tenor guitar made by Master Guitars. In April 2022, he asked PRS Guitars to create a custom four-string guitar.

Prominent users of the tenor guitar in the U.K. include the Lakeman brothers, Seth Lakeman and Sean Lakeman, and John McCusker and Ian Carr, who perform with the Kate Rusby Band. Irish folk artist Yawning Chasm primarily uses the tenor guitar.

Since 2010, Astoria, Oregon, has hosted an annual Tenor Guitar Gathering, leading some to call it the "unofficial Tenor Guitar Capital of the World."

Warren Ellis, a musician with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, plays a tenor guitar on the album Push the Sky Away. He has custom tenor guitars made by Eastwood Guitars, designed to resemble a Fender Mustang but with a wider neck for fingerstyle playing. Eastwood currently offers several electric tenor guitar models, including the Warren Ellis signature model, the semi-hollow Classic 4 Tenor, and the Tenorcaster.